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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26570455">Her Own True Nature</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falcolmreynolds/pseuds/Falcolmreynolds'>Falcolmreynolds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shadows over Sornieth [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Flight Rising</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:09:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,563</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26570455</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falcolmreynolds/pseuds/Falcolmreynolds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Why Alexiteric left her clan; what prompted her to turn to the Worldsea as her new home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shadows over Sornieth [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Her Own True Nature</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alexiteric was her name. A warrior of Clan Broadwater, who proudly guarded their territory on the coast of the Living Sea, a territory of ferns and redwoods. She was a warrior, a friend, a servant, and now, a mate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still think it’s odd,” her friend Nyrie told her, “that you decided to bond with someone who you could probably break if you breathed on him hard enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shrugged. “He’s sweet,” she said. “Isn’t that enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I s’pose. Still -”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not everyone has to be like us, Ny,” Alex interrupted, with a grin. “You know, not everyone </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyrie was a wildclaw, and every bit as strong and powerful as Alex was. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes, claws crunching on the twigs, her tail brushing the tops of the ferns. “Still, he’s a pearlcatcher! And his arms are like new twigs!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oi, leave off,” Alex grumbled. “Don’t insult my mate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, alright,” Ny said, laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had finally let someone court her - a pearlcatcher scholar named Lanelan. He was a nice enough dragon, and doted on her, and, well, she did like him! And he was fascinated by her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had strange eyes. She thought they were ordinary - she could see the world through them just fine - but apparently they made her magic special. Her magic was strong, coursing through her, and she used it to fight, to push and pull at life energy. To make things grow, whether her opponents wanted them to or not. And, lately, she could use it to shield. Lanelan had been telling her about the sea horrors beyond the barrier and the Watch that protected against them - though apparently, she wasn’t to tell anyone else - and the way her eyes marked her as someone who could fight against them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps I ought to,” she said, when he’d brought it up. “But that would mean leaving Broadwater behind, and I can’t do that. They need me. I must protect them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, my darling,” Lanelan said, nodding. “And I would never dream of asking you to leave this place. I just meant there are others like you out there! And I’ve never met any before. So you’re unique, in my eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No, she’d never leave Broadwater. She’d grown up nearby and moved here, and found this to be a place that spoke to her soul. A true home. Somewhere she loved more than anywhere else in the world. She belonged here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex smacked Nyrie with her tail. “Come on,” she said, playfully. “Our shift is almost up. We can head to the river afterwards and try to catch something fresh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m in,” Ny told her.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Alex enjoyed nursery duty. Someday, she thought, perhaps </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> would have a clutch of eggs here! Little sprouts, just like their mother. Lanelan wasn’t at all interested in that. She got that. It was a lot of responsibility. But maybe someday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nursery guards were obviously not the only dragons in the nursery - individual parents cared for their nests. But the guards were there to tend to the eggs if the parents had to step out for a bit, and to keep away predators and dangers. Not that there were hardly any in the heart of Broadwater territory, but it never hurt to be prepared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a peaceful job, a soothing job. Alex lay with her head on her paws, looking out over the nests, dappled with sunshine that streamed through the waving canopy overhead. This: this was the meaning of life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t doze, of course; guards didn’t, not while on the job. She rose to her feet and patrolled the nursery perimeter, then returned to her post. No one else was here at the moment; Theera, Janus, and Rakker had all stepped out for the moment. They knew the nursery was safe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so, she was the only one there when the air, high above and in the center of the nursery, began to warp and shift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She noticed it immediately. It was a pink-hued distortion in the air, like looking through a tinted waterfall. The hair of Alex’s mane stood on end and her skin prickled; the stink of magic began to permeate through the air. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Something’s wrong. This isn’t of our making. What is this…?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The distortion grew. Alex got to her feet, wings half-out, tail already lashing. Her heart raced. This was dangerous, whatever it was. And it was in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>nesting grounds.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Above, the crack in the world doubled suddenly in size. Through it, Alex saw a roiling mass of flesh. Her eyes widened. This was a portal of some sort - and something was going to come through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If it did, it would drop right onto the nests. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No. No! I can’t let it!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex crouched. Whatever it was, if she hit it just as it emerged, she’d be able to knock it backwards away from the nests, and then ideally drag it through the the forest. She would not let it harm the eggs. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t let it harm the eggs!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A single carapaced leg slipped out of the portal. Alex waited. A drip of green liquid that hissed when it hit the ground. Another leg. A third -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex launched herself into the air as, abruptly, a long, fleshy mass poured out of the portal. It was halfway removed when she impacted it and sent both it and herself flying towards the far end of the nesting ground, where there were no precious clutches of eggs. It was much larger than she expected, and when she yanked the rest of it out of the portal it came with a slippery </span>
  <em>
    <span>pop</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a wet fish. It screamed as it came out, a high-pitched shrieking, and Alex roared right back at it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“BREACH!” Alex bellowed, in the hopes that someone can hear her. “BREACH AT THE NURSERY!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, if anyone was nearby, they’ll have heard her shouts and would hopefully come running. In the meantime -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That liquid was pouring from - oh, by the Eleven. Were those </span>
  <em>
    <span>mouths?!</span>
  </em>
  <span> What </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> this thing?! Alex felt pain in her wings. The thing had spikes along its back and sides - they were tearing her wings up, a little. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit. I need to be more careful.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally she let go of the thing, throwing it into a tree. They were past the nursery border, but the area was still cleared - this was an area of the grounds that they were letting regrow for now, since it wasn’t needed. Fine. As long as she could keep the monster </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span> and not let it get anywhere else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monster screamed. It was spiked on the back, clawed on the sides, toothy on the belly, and sharp on the front. Alex prayed for a moment to the Gladekeeper for strength, then launched herself back at the thing and pounced on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was probably about her size, maybe a little smaller, but it was strong. The acid stung at her claws as she ripped into it; she felt the spikes tear at her body. The creature thrashed and flailed and threw her away, but she righted herself, skidding across the mossy forest floor, and rounded on it again, hissing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YOU KEEP THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY CLAN’S NESTS,” she shouted, into its face. It flinched, hissing, and pulled itself backwards. Good! Alex charged forward again -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mistake! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mistake!</span>
  </em>
  <span> The ground was covered in acid. She felt a searing pain in her paws as she bounded through a puddle of it, felt it splatter along her legs and belly. It hissed and burned, but she couldn’t stop it - she couldn’t stop to pay attention to it. She just diverted some of her magic to it and kept going. The creature was withdrawing back towards the nursery grounds. No!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a thunderous roar, Alex sprang forward and closed her jaws around the thing’s… head? She wasn’t sure. It had a singular eye, faceted and unblinking, and it seemed magical. When it looked at her, she felt vaguely sick. So she latched onto one of its largest mandibles with her jaws, fixing them in place, and then tried to batter its eye in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The creature </span>
  <em>
    <span>did not like that.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It rolled and slammed her into the ground, and she felt it twist in an unnatural way, yanking her neck around to the point where she had to let go or risk having her spine snapped. She chose to let go, stunned by the swiftness of the motion, and the creature’s pincers closed. She felt an extraordinary pain along the right side of her head and screamed, striking blindly forward with her claws. She felt them connect with flesh, flesh that burned, hissed when she touched it. The right side of her head felt like she’d pressed it against a white-hot cauldron. She couldn’t feel the area around her right ear. Sound from there was muted as well - no, gone. Shit, what had that thing </span>
  <em>
    <span>done</span>
  </em>
  <span> to her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had to kill it. She had to kill this thing. Alex grabbed onto it and started to batter at its body with her hind legs, ignoring the pricks and stabs as it cut through her scales and skin; she felt its body begin to come apart beneath her. She was ignoring the eye for now, focusing on what she could actually damage. She felt hot blood coursing down her neck and over her body. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This thing’s a lot tougher than I thought it was,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she realized, and then, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m in serious trouble right now.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex pulled her head back and sucked in a breath, trying not to choke on the stench of acid and blood. “BREACH!” she thundered again, her voice echoing through the trees. She used all the air in her lungs and all the strength in her body to call out. “BREACH! SOMETHING’S HERE! </span>
  <em>
    <span>HELP!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A good warrior knew when to call for assistance. She should have done it sooner, but there hadn’t been time -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The creature trumpeted some kind of alien call at her, writhing beneath her. She felt spines scrape across her belly, opening up burning gashes. Shit. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex let go of its body and backwinged as hard as she could, pulling herself away from the monster. Blood and acid spattered the moss and soil. Crushed shrubs and ferns spun around her as she tried to breathe. The monster, clicking pincers and hissing, rattling mouths, drew itself up again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t let… she couldn’t let it get…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a ragged cry, Alex drove forwards again, aiming once more for the head. She latched onto it and felt its pincers close around her tail, then open again. It wasn’t severed, but boy, did that hurt. She spun, skittering, and landed on the thing, whimpering silently to herself as its many spines drove up into her belly and underside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The forest was silent, for the most part. No one was here. She had to do this herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex opened her jaws again and slammed her face down on the thing’s eye. Her upper left fang drove in, piercing through the thick clear scale-material of the eye, and it screamed and thrashed. Alex held on this time, feeling acid scorch her arms and paws. It did toss her head free, but she just turned and slammed her antlers into it, headbutted it, bit at it - anything she could do. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Anything.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It was as it was trying to throw her off that it managed to twist around and catch her jaw in its largest front pincers, the ones protecting the mouth just below its eye. Her lower jaw, open as she was going for another bite. For an instant, she and it hung in the moment, just staring at each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then it dragged her inwards. She felt its mouth closer over her face, the teeth ripping at her from every angle. She closed her eyes, screaming, hoping, and let go of its body to try and pull her face free. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No! No! Please, someone, help!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Very, very distantly, she heard the sound of something through the trees. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Please let that be one of the Broadwater warriors,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she prayed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t know if I can do this on my own…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She wrenched her head backwards, trying to pull herself free, and with the sensation of tearing flesh she pulled her head out of the thing’s mouth. The teeth grated loudly on bone, echoing inside her skull. That was her bone. Her skull. It had stripped her flesh away. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No! No!! I can’t let this stop me -</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wrenched her face to the right, free of the teeth - no. It still had her lower jaw. She froze, and felt as the pincers closed on her teeth. She felt the sharp </span>
  <em>
    <span>snap</span>
  </em>
  <span> of bone as it shattered between her lower fangs, and then she felt the stretching, tearing feeling of flesh being ripped apart, the kind of distant tugging that you could only feel when there is so much pain you can no longer sense it. There was a dull pop as the left side of her jaw popped out of its socket. She felt the tugging continue, in her face, her throat, her neck, and watched through streams of blood as the creature beneath her ripped away a strip of her own body, glittering white on the outside, pulsing red on the inside. It traced a line down her neck until she weakly batted at it with one hand and broke the piece away. Horror clawed at her insides. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s part of me it just took. That’s - that’s my, that’s my -</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The inside of her mouth felt cold and dry. It had never felt like this before. She knew what had happened, knew as the monster swallowed the flesh and bone that it had just taken something from her that she could not get back, but her mind refused to think it. It couldn’t handle the concept.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she just leaned forward and dug her upper fangs into the thing’s eye. Her lower jaw wasn’t in the way anymore; the half that was still attached was dislocated, dangling. She could feel it. She didn’t want to feel it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just bore down as hard as she could, pressing her full weight into its eye, feeling it splinter underneath her, and felt it crack, then shatter as she pierced through the shell. Underneath it was liquid and goopy, and the creature let out a resounding shriek and thrashed wildly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was it. That was all she could do. Alex felt herself let go. She could not longer feel anything, and there was blood and slime and acid everywhere. She tried to breathe and choked on blood, feeling it clog up her throat. Panicked, she tried to breathe again, and started to suffocate, thick gobs of liquid in her airway. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Please, please, no! No, Gladekeeper, save me, I - I don’t want to die, I can’t die, I won’t die, please -</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A particularly vicious breath blew the mess of blood and slime free, and Alex suddenly sucked in a breath. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought, </span>
  <em>
    <span>thank you, thank you, thank you…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her vision faded. Dimly she heard the creature collapse to the ground, writhing. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t let it get… I tried,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I tried. No. I have to -</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She put out one paw and dragged herself towards it. It was still alive. She had to kill it, had to protect the nests. It wasn’t moving a whole lot - the eye must’ve been important to it - but it was still there. She reached out again, trying to get closer. She caught sight of her paws - they were shredded and burned, the white scales gone, the flesh underneath pale and bloodless. She was dizzy. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t die,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought fiercely. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This thing can’t kill me. I’m stronger than it is. I’m - I can survive this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Something broke through the trees - a bright yellow mirror flanked by several of the guards. “Alex?” he called, and then spotted her and jumped backwards, tripping over the roots and falling in his haste to back up. “Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gladekeeper’s mercy -!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex raised a paw and pointed to the creature. She tried to speak, to tell them to kill it, but she couldn’t get her mouth to work. A light green pearlcatcher, looking sick, cautiously took a step towards her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ih,” Alex managed, through a bubble of blood. She slapped one of her front paws on the sodden ground. The creature screamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll get it,” the mirror said. He and a blue wildclaw darted towards it and began to circle its thrashing form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pearlcatcher approached, horror plainly written across his features - as far as Alex could see. Everything was darkening and blood-stained, and no matter how many times she blinked her eyes, she couldn’t seem to clear them. Behind the pearlcatcher, a skydancer took one look at her and stumbled back into the trees, retching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Huh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That can’t be good,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex thought dimly. “Eh,” she said to the pearlcatcher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t try to speak,” the pearlcatcher said. “It, uh, uhhh, just don’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That bad, huh? Alex closed her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t give up on me,” the pearlcatcher said, and took the last few steps to carefully lay a hand on Alex’s side. It came away bloodied, but she felt magic of some type flowing into her. Her own magic was still going strong, trying to keep her alive, giving her more blood, more power.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pearlcatcher tipped his head to the side. She didn’t know what he was doing. “Kalla,” he said, “we need you here, right now. The far end of the nursery grounds.” Alex could hear him speak because her left ear was facing up. The right one was still dead. “Kalla, </span>
  <em>
    <span>now.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I don’t care what else you’re doing. If you don’t get over here right this instant, Alex is dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m not dead,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex wanted to say. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t die.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But she couldn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kalla, </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurry!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Kalla was the clan’s healer. The best one they had. Alex closed her eyes again and didn’t reopen them. The Gladekeeper’s mercy was what was letting her breathe right now. All she had to do was breathe…</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>When Alex woke, she heard birdsong and running water. She found herself laying on a massive shaped heap of moss and earth and fabric. Her body screamed and ached. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gods, what happened…?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The portal in the nursery. The creature. The -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex looked down to a paw. It was swathed in white bandages. She tried to twitch her whiskers, but couldn’t feel her face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What - what’s happened. Where am I. What’s going on?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone came in through the side door - Kalla, the spiral medic and surgeon of Clan Broadwater. “Hush,” she said, not unkindly. “Don’t rise. You’ll start spewing blood again, and we can’t have that. Lay back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh,” Alex managed. She’d wanted to say ‘what happened’ but she couldn’t feel her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kalla looked at her critically. “You were in a fight,” she said, somehow understanding. “It didn’t end well for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eh,” Alex said, panicked. The nests. The nests, were the nests -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The nests are fine,” Kalla told her, fluttering over and laying a claw on her shoulder. “The nests are all fine. No one was hurt, except for you. The creature’s dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank the gods.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex lay her head back down and closed her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rest,” Kalla told her, regret and sorrow in her eyes. “You need it.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Kalla had arrived on the scene, done as much immediate first-aid as she could, and then ordered Alex brought back to the heart of the clan. They’d actually taken the chunk of ground she’d laid upon and levitated it to the healing-house just so that she wouldn’t be moved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After that first waking-time, Alex was more lucid. Which… wasn’t necessarily a good thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Magical healing was a wondrous thing. In just days, she’d gone from being a complete wreck to being able to sit up, communicate nonverbally, even walk. But she wasn’t the same. Her paws were alright, their flesh and skin repaired, but they were knobbly and covered in a white, scar-tissue-like material that Kalla couldn’t identify except as some product of Alex’s own body. There were scars scattered across her body like a starscape, marks of the creature. And her face…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monster had eaten half of her lower jaw. It had been dissolved; the healers couldn’t get it back. And despite their best efforts, they couldn’t manage to replicate one. Alex’s own magic was too unruly for it. Similarly, the wound on her throat refused to heal properly, so it was wrapped with enchanted bandages to keep it clean and painless. It still hurt, though. It stung and burned and ached, constantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her face was ruined. The thing had bitten her right ear off - no one had been able to find it - and stripped half the flesh from her face. What they’d managed to grow back was at least enough to cover the bone, but she now had her teeth permanently bared, and there was nothing that could be done about the raw flesh of her jaw. It was a miracle her eyes had survived.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex peered at herself in a mirror and shuddered. It wasn’t pretty. She couldn’t speak, and to eat or drink she had to pour water into the open wound of her throat and tip her head up, or mash food into a slimy paste and shove it into her own esophagus, since she couldn’t chew anymore. It was degrading and embarrassing and messy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the worst part was Lanelan. He saw her once and had to leave the room to compose himself, looking as if he was going to be sick. He couldn’t look at her. And she couldn’t even talk to him. She couldn’t speak. She could only watch him stand there, trembling, and then lower his gaze to the floor, shaking his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was no surprise to her that he had their bond nullified days later, when it was clear that her wounds would never heal in their current state, that the clan’s medics had done all they could. It was no surprise that he didn’t even speak to her about it. Nyrie came to tell her, and she only nodded, staring at the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex,” Nyrie started, “I… I’m sorry we didn’t get there sooner.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex swung her head to observe her friend. Nyrie flinched, but continued. “We heard you and we came as fast as we could, but it - it wasn’t fast enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence. Alex shook her head, disrupting the dust motes of the room. It was fine. It wasn’t her fault.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two days after that, the armorsmiths of the clan brought Alex her mask. They offered it to her, and she accepted; when she slid it over her head, feeling the metal and cloth settle into place, she felt like she was throwing a shroud over the ruins of her life. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s fine. It is dead.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The mask was enchanted; water could pass through, cleansed, so she could drink, and air, and no one could see in at her. And most importantly -</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Alex said, twisting her tongue and what was left of her mouth, and hearing the air and intent turn to words outside the metal shell. “I need this. Thank you… for this.” The magic hammered into the metal allowed her to communicate again. She could have learned sign, and attempted it with her gnarled paws, but it was… easier this way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her right ear was gone, but they cleaned the wound well enough to save her hearing on that side of her head. The helmet protected the hole to her skull as well and dampened sound a bit, so it wasn’t so painful. It helped her balance herself again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had her armor repaired. The clan seemed eager to help her, and she knew why; they knew she was going to leave. And they wanted to be rid of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” she finally asked, to one of the mages, a pale white tundra with orange eyes. “Why did it show up? Where did it come from?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He avoided looking at her, but answered. “We tried to trace the magic, but it was unstable,” he said. “All we know is that it was arcane. Likely someone tried to send the monster away from their own home, and accidentally dumped it into ours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just… like that?” Alex said, feeling rage burn within her. “They just… sent it away?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It would seem so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wizards,” Alex snarled, the words hissing in her damaged throat. Someone had casually just shoved a monster through a distortion in the world and it had ruined her life and everything she cared about. Someone’s experimental byproduct, or training dummy, or casual fight, or territory management, had rebounded on </span>
  <em>
    <span>her.</span>
  </em>
  <span> There wasn’t a single arcane dragon in Clan Broadwater, and Alex was glad of it - the memory of that pinkish magic made her stomach churn and her throat burn. “Careless, wretched little arcane wizards,” she spat. “Not giving a shit if their actions have consequences.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tundra flinched. Alex didn’t address it, just rose and stalked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She left ten days after she was injured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going,” she told Nyrie, the day she flew away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I know,” Nyrie said. “I’ll miss you, Alex. You know that, right? Everyone here will miss you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t lie to me,” Alex snapped, turning the metal mask to face her friend. Nyrie flinched again. The mask had been outfitted with a circular blade; Alex could attack with her head again, she just couldn’t bite. She could still wound, maim, kill. She knew that it made her face even more invisible behind the metal and cloth and enchantments. Nyrie couldn’t see her; she just saw the smooth, cold steel. “Don’t lie to me,” Alex repeated. “They don’t want to see me. I’m a reminder of something they couldn’t fix. The healers can’t fucking look at me. Lanelan can’t -”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She broke off, seething with rage and grief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyrie twisted her front claws together. “I’m sorry,” she finally said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex didn’t say anything else to her, just stood and collected what few things she didn’t want to lose. Most of her trinkets she left behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d done her job. She’d protected Broadwater. And now they didn’t want her anymore; she wasn’t a hero, she was just a warrior who hadn’t done her job well enough to avoid getting hurt. All because of some stupid arcane dragon who’d thought that dropping a monster through a portal would be a fun idea. Her wounds burned and ached. She couldn’t touch her magic anymore; she felt it pouring into her wounds, keeping them clean, and disappearing. If she tried to reach for it, it wouldn’t answer. It was too busy keeping her alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alive. That’s what she was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex turned herself to the barrier. There were other dragons with her eyes beyond it, fighting only the gods knew what horrible creatures. If those sea horrors were anything like the creature she’d faced…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe she could be of use to them. Someone who could fight. Someone who could survive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had said she’d never leave Broadwater. That it was her true home, somewhere she loved more than anywhere else in the world. That she belonged there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex set her sights on the distant islands and took flight.</span>
</p>
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